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Bulletin No, 58 “a oM. oT EIGHTON ‘October 31, 1922, 


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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 


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DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL APPAIRS 
James F, Woodward, Secretary 


BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
George H. Ashley, State Geologist 


POTASH FIASCO IN TIOGA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 
By R, W. Stone 
and 


Simple Tests for Potash, by W, B. Hicks 


Mountain of Potash reported, The discovery of a mountain of potash 
near Davis Station; Tioga County, was reported in the newspapers in 
the summer of 1919, but efforts of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey 
to obtain any evidence of the occurrence of potash in more than the 
most meager quantity have proved fruitless, 





Professor William Frear of State College investigated the matter, 
ascribed the source of the potash to’‘cave guano‘and his findings were 
published in:The American Fertilizer, August 30, 1919. As seemingly 
undiminished interest in the reported deposit continued, Professor 
Benjamin L, Miller of Lehigh University examined the locality in 
August 1920 and submitted a report to ithe State Geologist which was 
used in answering correspondence, but was not published. The present 
writer went to Davis in August 1922 shortly after the publication of 
& newspaper item purporting that a mill was to be built for treating 
the ore. 


What_is potash? The form of potash found near Davis Station was 
niter, or saltpeter (stone salt, so called because it exudes from 
rocks).: It is a colorless or white crystalline substance with a 
cooling, saline taste, known chemically as potassium nitrate (KNOz), 
Potassium nitrate contains 39 per cent potassium (K) equivalent to 

47 per cent "potash" (Ko0). It is’ formed by the action of microbes 
on nitrogen-bearing organic bodies, taken in solution by surface water 
and crystallized out where the water evaporates, usually in caves or 
on rock surfaces protected from the weather. Saltpeter derived from 
bat guano formed in caves in the southern States was utilized during 
the Givil War for making gun powder,-.. It'is now prepared artificially 
and used in making explosives, fireworks, and matches, and also as a, 


food preservative, flux, and in medicine, 




















































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Incrustations of potassium nitrate on the surface of rock ledges 
protected from the weather are not uncommon, having been formed in 
many places throughout the country, From the nature of their origin 
the quantity of material is usually small and lacks commercial value. 


Location. Tioga County is near the middle of the north boundary of 
Pennsylvania. Davis Station is near the west border of the county in 
Clymer township on the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad and on Long 
Run, five miles north of Gaines. This place was formerly known as 
Lansing (a postoffice which has been discontinued). The supposed 
potash-bearing rocks and the mining development are on the hillside 
northeast of and about 400 yards from the railroad station, 


Discovery. The original discovery of potash at this place was not 
recent. According to Prof. Miller, many years ago farmers in the 
reighborhood obtained saltpeter here for curing meat, The salt’ 
occurred as thin’layers of white coating on the rocks, In 1918, 
James McCullough, whose father was one of the early users of salt- ’ 
peter from this locality, recalled the occurrence, and with his son, 
Simon McCullough, made an investigation to determine if the deposit 
had commercial value. Samples were taken and reports on the analyses 
were so favorable that the two McCulloughs took an option on the land 
and interested other men in purchasing the property. A company was 
formed and stock sold to get money for building a mill to refine 
potassium nitrate. The company however soon learned that the 
proposition was impracticable, refunded the money paid for stock, and 
disorganized, 


Development, © The owners of the land thereupon investigated in their 
own interests, arranged for two diamond drill test holes, and formed 
anew company. One diamond drill hole was sunk near the ledge of 

rock bearing saltpeter, and the other about one quarter mile south- 
east. Both of them are reported to have been 300 feet deep, and drill 
cores carefully preserved and analyzed. According to Mr. McCullough 
and current newspapers, the cores of the first hundred feet from the 
surface contained about 1 per cent of potassium nitrate. It was 
claimed also that there was a considerable loss of nitrate by solution 
during drilling. 


The new company, known as the Pennsylvania Potash and Fertilizer 
Company, Westfield, Pa., was incorporated with a capitalization of 
$350,000. Having acquired 640 acres plans were made to erect a mill 
on the-hillside below the mine. This mill was to reduce the rock to 
a powder, which was to be bagged and sold as a fertilizer, Sufficient 
profit was expected from the sale of crushed rock for fertilizer to 
build -eventually a large mill for extracting and refining potassium 
nitrate, 


_ A tunnel (adit) was driven in the hillside about 250 feet above 
the railroad in 1920, It is in nearly horizontal sandstone, 
penetrates the hill about 100 feet, and at the inner end turns to the 
left 15 feet to a raise, the height of which was not determined. A 
second tunnel was driven about 100 feet higher on the hill in the 
spring of 1921. ‘Twenty feet of open cut through hillwash, 100 feet 
of tunnel in thin-bedded sandstone, and a raise at the inner end, 


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Said to reach the surface, constitute the latest development work. 
Timber was used only at the entries of these openings because the 
Sandstone roof was solid. <A cabin and blacksmith shop at the mouth 
of the lower tunnel were the only buildings, Drills were operated 
with compressed air. 


No mining development has been done on this property since the 
Spring of 1921; in August 1922 the entries of underground workings 
were caving, and the project presumably is abandoned. 


source of the potash, Geologically the region is one of the flat- 
lying sedimentary rocks. The upper part of the valley and the 
neighboring hilltovs are underlain by greenish-gray sandstones of the 
Oswago (Pocono) formation. The bottom of the valley at Davis is cut 
in reddish shales and sandstones of the Cattaraugus (Catskill) 
formation of Devonian age, 
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Professor William Prear of Pennsylvania State College says: ~~ 
"The deposit reported was one of niter or saltpveter, the nitrate at 
potassium. This compound is formed in every soil by the action of 
certain bacteria upon nitrogen-containing organic matter. We are not 
certain that, in nature, it is formed in considerable quantity in any ~ 
other way, It appears in encrustations upon the soils of arid regions, 
and, in humid regions, in locations protected from the rain, such as 
covered barnyards, stable floors, bat caves, etc. 


"As the material is very soluble in water, large accumulations do 
not occur in the soils of humid regions; the drainage waters carry it 
away, Deep artesian wells often contain a very little nitrate, It 
is probably present in the moisture contained in many rocks, so far 
as that moisture is derived from soil drainage. No large accumulations 
are known in the humid regions of the world in any subsurface rock. 
These facts make improbable the existence in Pennsylvania of any 
great rock-contained deposit of saltpeter, 


"The rock in question is a weathered mass‘of small‘size project- 
ing from the hillslope. It'is much stratified, that is, made up of 
numerous thin layers with considerable crevices protected from the 
action of rain. \hite to brownish white encrustations appear on the 
surfaces of these crevices in the middle and lower parts of the 
exposeé. front of this jutting rock. This encrustation, a sample of 
which I took, contains niter. 


"However, several facts of possible importance give rise to a 
question as to the immediate source of this niter and as to the 
extent to which the encrustation extends through the great body of 
rock of which this jutting point forms a very small part. I was told 
that this outcrop had long been known locally as "the saltpeter rocx," 
but that other outcrops at the same elevation on the same hill had no 
such repute, The "saltpeter rock" contains a large cave, the floor 
of which is covered with the dung of wild animals, This dung may be 





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1919, : 


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the source of the saltpeter. whether the niter encrustations appear 
also in the great mass of the rock back under the hill is now being 
'@etermined. If they do not, the deposit is scientifically interesting 
but not commercially important." 


Professor B, Ll. Miller of Lehigh University reported as follows 
regarding the same occurrence:=- "The deposit where first discovered 
lies about 400 or 500 feet above the level of the stream. The slope 
of the hill is’covered with angular blocks and slabs of the greenish-~ 
gray sandstone, but with few exposures of the rock in place. The 
exception is a cliff about 15 feet in height and extending longitudi- 
nally about 30 or 40 feet. This exposure consists of thin bedded 
greenish~gray micaceous sandstones in which marked cross bedding is 
observable. Few of the layers are more than one inch thick and many 
of them are so thin that they appear somewhat shaly, The slope of the 
hill being‘very steep, large blocks of this rock have been slightly 
dislocated, opening up numerous cracks and furnishing a favorable 
place for the woodchucks to live in. It seems that they must be very 
numerous, as heaps of their droppings can be found all through these 
Openings. It is thought that the potassium nitrate in part, at least, 
comes from this source. Along the bedding planes and many of the 
joint planes as well, there is a deposit of white ‘material that 
effervesces vigorously and is apparently composed, in the main, of 
calcium carbonate. This material is claimed to contain the potassium 
nitrate in its purest form, although rocks in which no surficial 
coating occurs are said to yield potassium nitrate on analysis. This 
statement has not been verified to our knowledge." 


"Soil along the hillside and also in the floodplain of the small 
stream below is reported as carrying several per cent of potassium 
nitrate, and yielding unusual crops. Nothing of this was apparent in 
August. The soil of the hillside seemed to be no more fertile than 
any other soil of the county. In fact, the vegetation did not appear 
SO vigorous as in many other places," 


"The conclusion reached is that, in all probability, potassium 
nitrate is present in the region, contained in the white incrustation 
which is mainly calcium carbonate. This occurrence could be accounted 
for by leaching of the woodchuck manure that is abundant in the 
crevices of the rock. No opinion can be expressed in regard to the 
claim that potassium nitrate was found in the rocks themselves or in 
the crevices in the strata penetrated by the diamond drill, If these 
cores contained potassium nitrate, there must be an additional source 
for the material, “The presence of a small amount of potassium nitrate 
in the rock could be exvlained as coming from the mica:‘which is’ 
fairly abundant in certain layers. That could account, however, for 
a very small amount.” 


Professor Miller collected samples of the rock bearing a white 
efflorescent coating which was claimed to contain potassium nitrate 
in its purest form, Several months after Professor Miller had written 
the foregoing statement, the following analyses of his sampics were 
‘received from the Bureau of Chemistry, Pennsylvania Department of 
Agriculture: 


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Potash (Ke0) in rock from Davis Station, Tioga County. 





Sample number 95-2268 S=2269 S-2270 
(per cent) (per cent) (per cent) 

Rock 9,14 a7 Cea 

Incrustation Oe Le O4k4 0.19 


As these samples contained less than one-quarter of one per cent 
water soluble potash, the Geological Survey concludes that the 
reported recent discovery was a farce, and that the development work 
was a fiasco. 


Simple Tests for Potash.” 
By We Be Hicks 


Principles, Potassium is generally found in nature in’‘solution, as 
Soluble salts or saline residues, in organic substances, in alunite, 
and in silicate rocks and minerals. Simple methods for detecting and 
determining it are here described for the benefit of those who may be 
interested in making rough field tests. These tests have been used 
with good results by members‘of the United States Geological Survey 
and may be used successfully, it is believed, by any one with little 
Or no experience in chemical manipulation, They depend on the fact 
that when a volatile potassium compound is heated in a flame it 
imparts a characteristic violet color to the flame, Though usually 
masked by the colors produced by other elements, especially sodium | 
and calcium, the coloration due to potassium is readily secn and 
idcntificd by observing the flame through a Merwin color screen, 


Equipment, The equipment necessary for malting the tests herein 
described consists of - 


1. Lamp for volatilizing the potash compound. F#or this purpose 
an ordinary alcohol lamp with an-‘asbestos wick will often suffice, but 
a gasoline or alcohol biast lamp, which requires no wick and which 
burns with a hot, nonluminous flame, gives far better results, 


2s Platinum wire about 4 inches long. One end Qf the wire 
should:be sealed in to the end of a short glass rod tg serve as a 
handle, and the opposite end should be bent into the form of a small 
loop. 


3. Merwin color screen. 


4, Smali beaker. 
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* Mineral Resources of the United States, 1915, part II. pp. 129-131, 
A947. 


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De Hydrochloric acid, 
6. Gypsum or calcium sulphate, 


Procedure for water and brines. First clean the loop of platinum 
wire by dipping it in hydrochloric acid and igniting it until the 
flame is no longer colored, By means of the clean platinum loop 
remove a drop of the solution to be tested, carefully evaporate it to 
dryness by holding over the flame, finally ignite, and observe the 
color'of the flame through the Merwin color screen. The best results 
are obtained by using a black background, holding the Merwin screen — 
Close up against the eyes, and looking through the central section of 
the screen. If potassium’salts are »resent, the flame will appear 
reddish to reddish violet, and the intensity and duration of the color 
Wili give some idea as to the amount of potassium, 


Procedure for soluble salts. For detecting potassium in saline 
residues and soluble salts in general, as well as for‘detecting 
Soluble potassium compounds in muds, clays, and ashes, proceed as 
follows: Dissolve a portion of the sample in a small quantity of 
water, allow the undissolved material to settle out, remove a drop of 
the clear solution by means of tho loop of platinum wire, and test in 
the flame as just described for waters and brines. 


in tests for alum and other sulphatcs the clear solution should 
be poured off from the insoluble residue and some hydrochloric acid 
added before making the test. 


The water used in all such tests should be examined to see 
whether it contains potassium, 


Procedure for organic substances. The substance to be tested is 
first ignited or burned at as low a temperature as possible until 
only the ash remains. The ash is then tested for potassium according 
to the procedure just described for soluble salts, 


Procedure for alunite, Powder the sample to be tested and moisten 
it with hvdrochloric acid. By means of the loop of platinum wire 
transfer a portion of the moistened powder to the flame, ignitc, and 
observe the color of‘the flame through the Merwin color sereen. If 
potassium is present, the flame will appear decp reddish violet, 


Emphasis should be placed on the fact that this procedure i6).a 
test for potassium and not neccessarily for alunitc. ‘Other potash- 
bearing materials, especially leucite and glauconite, will give 
Similar results with such treatment. 


Procedure for silicate rocks and minerals. In order to detect f 
potassium in Silicate rocks and minerals, such as feldspar, granite, 
leucite, rhyolite, glauconite, and sericite, powder the material 
finely, mix with an equal duantity of pure gypsum, and moisten the 
mixture with dilute hydrochloric acid. By means of the loop of 
platinum wire, transfer a portion of the moist mixture to the flame, 


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ignite, and observe the color of the flame through the Merwin color 
screen. The reddish violet color will be apparent if potassium is 
prescnt,. 


Although with less satisfactory results, as a rule, the test may 
be carried out by mixing the material to be tested with either hydro- 
chloric acid or gypsum alone, 


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